Critical studies

 Ambiguity talk  

After our talk on ambiguity and art we've been asked to find two examples of work in relation to ambiguity and discus. The first piece ill be looking at is Untitled from the 2001 twilight photograph series by Gregory Crewdson. 

Gregory Crewdson is an American photographer who creates and directs sets for his photographs. These photographs are completely staged with sets made solely for these images, meaning each object has been thought about and placed with intention, the same with the lighting, angles and model, everything has been thought about with purpose. These images are cinematic in set up and highly narrative, this one showing a woman laying in a flooded house but other than that there is no other information or context given, not even a title to pull clues from. The other images in the series are all similar in this ambiguous nature, they are highly narrative like snapshots from a strange film, depicting people in unlikely and odd situations but with no further information as to what is actually being shown or why. This choice to not reveal any other information or meaning to an artwork is something that can engage and ignite curiosity in the viewer, especially in a piece like this were strange things are being depicted but no real story is being told. This creates intrigue, whether a viewer personally likes the piece or not they'll still be left wanting to know what's going on and why.

 

 When researching online i found that this photo seemed to of been nicknamed by the public as "Ophelia", the story of Ophelia is one most know, either through Shakespeare's Hamlet or John Everett Millais's painting, because of the little information given the public have taken what they can see visually and added their own views and ideas onto it. This is one of the things about ambiguous art i personally really like. When someone views a piece there own knowledge, ideas, background and personal taste will all inform the messaging or ideas they take away from that piece. Ambiguous art creates a space where the viewer really just takes what they want and form there own message to the work and although each would vary dramatically there all correct.